Independent Power Engineers

Never Trust the Machine, trust the engineer!

Who are we?

IPE (Independent Power Engineers) is a nonprofit organization passionate about the
power engineering industry. Our main mandate is to test and expose the different issues
and dysfunctions of different power system simulation softwares. Please note that all of
our tests are made available also on YouTube for transparency. Look for Independent
Power Engineers on YouTube to get access to our latest videos.

Product
Manufacturer
Version
Revision
Operating system
System properties

ETAP
OTI (Operation Technology Inc)
12
0.0
Windows 7 / 64 Bit
CPU @2.20GHz 2.20GHz RAM: 8.00GB

ETAP CASE-0007
Analysis
Analysis detail
Issue
Reason
Proposed solution

Adaptive Newton Raphson (New load flow method in ETAP 12)

Load flow analysis, Precision= 0.00001 & Max number of Iteration=9999
Different results in two case with same impedance has been obtained by ETAP !?
Estimation in inversing Jacobean Matrix or estimation in storing values of Jacobean Matrix
None

ETAP CASE-0007 Overview:

We modeled the following real network (Just we simplified a big network to a small network to be able to show reported
issue), to test results of the Adaptive Newton Raphson method of ETAP load flow analysis:

Figure 1: Load Flow model

Independent Power Engineers

1234-

Never Trust the Machine, trust the engineer!

Source( SC-rating=700 MVA, X/R=45)

Transformer( 34.5/6kv, Z=7% , X/R=10)
Motor (6 KV, 5000 HP, PF=93.03%, Eff= 94.41%, LRC=650%,
Locked Rotor PF=15%, LRT=103% MaxT=198%, Ns=1800, Nr=1781.64,
Slip=1.02%, In=408.5 A)
Load (2000 KVA, PF=100%)
For cable we decided to have four following cases:
Cable (R= 1 ohm/km , X= 0.1 ohm/km), Length=1799 m
Cable1 (R= 1 ohm/km , X= 0.0 ohm/km), Length=1799 m and Cable2 (R= 0.0 ohm/km , X= 0.1 ohm/km), Length=1799
Cable (R= 1 ohm/km , X= 0.1 ohm/km), Length=1858m
Cable1 and Cable 2 (R= 0.5 ohm/km, X= 0.05 ohm/km), Length of each cable =1858 m

In fact case No. one and No. two are completely same , just we divided impedance of cable to two part, first part consist
of only resistance and second part consist of only reactance.
Also case No. three and No. four are completely same , exactly we divided impedance of cable to two part in case 4

ETAP CASE-0007Observation:
We run the Load Flow analysis with case one, mean that in this case we have only one cable with following specification/
Cable (R= 1 ohm/km , X= 0.1 ohm/km), Length=1799 m
Then we disconnect cable and connect cables in case two as following:
Cable1 (R= 1 ohm/km , X= 0.0 ohm/km), Length=1799 m and Cable2 (R= 0.0 ohm/km , X= 0.1 ohm/km), Length=1799
Results of both studies has been shown in figure no. 2 A and 2B

Figure 1: Load Flow Results (2A: Case 1 . 2B: Case 2)

Independent Power Engineers

Never Trust the Machine, trust the engineer!

As you can see the voltage of load busbar in case one is 53.76 % , but in case two is 37.32%,
How this could happen, if we check impedance from transformer outgoing up to load busbar, it is completely equal?!
Case One Impedance: 1.799 * (1+j0.1)=1.799+j1799
Case two Impedance: 1.799 * (1) + 1.799*(j0.1) = 1.799+j0.1799
Also if you check results of powers in case no. 2, powers are completely odd?! It seems that there is a convergence, but
results are wrong,(check power of transformer incoming and power of load)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We run the Load Flow analysis with case three, mean that in this case we have only one cable with following
specification/
Cable (R= 1 ohm/km , X= 0.1 ohm/km), Length=1855 m
Then we disconnect cable and connect cables in case two as following:
Cable1 and Cable 2 are equal (R= 0.5 ohm/km, X= 0.05 ohm/km), Length of each cable =1858 m
Results of both studies has been shown in figure no. 3 A and 3B

Figure 3: Load Flow Results (3A: Case 1 . 3B: Case 2)

As you can see the voltage of load busbar in case one is 60,76 % , but in case two is 59,43%,
How this could happen, if we check impedance from transformer outgoing up to load busbar, it is completely equal?!
Case One Impedance: 1.858 * (1+j0.1)=1.858+j0.1858
Case two Impedance: 1.858 * (0.5+j0.05)+ 1.858 * (0.5+j0.05)= 1.858+j0.1858
Powers are a lot different; Please check powers of incoming of transformer and load, the difference is around two
times!?How this happen? Dose this has any meaning?! It seems that there is a convergence, but results are wrong

ETAP CASE-0007 Explanation:

We strongly believe that ETAP has some difficulty in inversing JACOBEAN Matrix. In all above cases , one cable has been
divided to two cables, so one node has been added between first part and second part of cable and this means changing
in JACOBEAN Matrix Arrays , so different in calculation will be due to solving different Jacobean matrix?!
These are only our Idea and we strongly recommend to ETAP support to clear this issue as soon as possible for us.